A large evergreen shrub or small tree; young shoots angled (even triangular), not downy. Leaves leathery, ovate or narrowly oval, pointed, tapered at the base, toothed, 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, 3⁄4 to 2 in. wide, glabrous or nearly so, bright green above, freely sprinkled with dark brown dots beneath (the remnants of bristles); stalk 1⁄12 to 1⁄6 in. long. Racemes 1 to 3 in. long, produced from the leaf-axils in April from the shoots made the previous year; main-stalk angled, downy. Flowers drooping, fragrant, closely packed on the raceme; bracts very small. Corolla ovoid to bell-shaped, scarcely 1⁄4 in. long, greenish yellow or whitish, glabrous or nearly so outside; calyx five-lobed to half its depth. Fruits surrounded as they usually are in this genus, by the enlarged fleshy calyx which is a beautiful dark blue (sometimes pale blue); each one is borne on a stalk 1⁄12 to 1⁄6 in. long and downy like the main-stalk. Bot. Mag., t. 5984.
Native of the mountains of India, where it is widely spread; also of Ceylon; introduced about 1850, but described originally by Wallich in Asiatic Researches in 1818. It succeeds well in the open air in Cornwall and similar places, and survives out-of-doors at Kew, but it really needs greenhouse treatment in many parts of the country. It is most nearly related to G. forrestii but is a much more vigorous plant.